New fire alarm system to begin testing soon

By George Ipe

In a move to increase safety and modernize existing systems, new fire
alarms are being installed in the Infinite Corridor and some adjacent
buildings, according to Safety Officer Jerry Diaz. An outside contractor
began work on the system upgrade in February, and a three-part testing
phase will begin later this month.

The alarm systems being replaced were designed to comply with fire codes
that were written when the buildings were built, "20, 30, 40 years ago,"
Diaz said. "But codes change as years pass; when new technologies come by,
what was acceptable 30 or 40 years ago is not acceptable today," he said.

Though encouraged by the

Cambridge Fire Company and the present state fire codes, "the alarm system
upgrade is something that MIT has chosen to do voluntarily," Diaz said.

The old system was installed without fire alarms so that students would
not be disturbed by false alarms. "So the old system didn't have any bells,
or whistles, or horns. What they had was a `pull station' where the alarm
could be manually triggered, and a signal would be immediately sent to the
fire department. Night watchmen and campus police were also on the lookout
for possible fires," Diaz said.

System is state-of-the-art

"The new system is state-of-

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the-art, replacing the old electromechanical alarms with solid-state
electronics. The new fire alarm will augment the pull stations with
flashing strobe lights, which will aid the hearing-impaired. In addition, a
`whooper' siren, preferred by modern fire codes, will be installed," he
said.

Another feature of the system is an emergency microphone that will allow
firemen to give instructions directly through a speaker system.

Installation in Buildings 2, 4, 6 and 8 is nearing completion, and
initial tests will begin by the middle of November. The three phases of
final inspection include a contractor test and an MIT acceptance test, both
mandated by law, and a joint fire alarm drill conducted by the fire
station, MIT and the contractor.

Diaz said there have been no major fires on campus since the arson
incident at Burton-Conner House last year. He added, "This modernization
program is in its first phase; future plans call for these alarms to be
installed in other buildings as well. The new systems will be a great
improvement over what we had before."